McCarthy Expecting Fit Again Bart to Stay For Rest of Season Thursday, 18th Jan 2018 15:25 Blues keeper Bartosz Bialkowski is back in training after his calf problem with manager Mick McCarthy expecting the Pole to be with Town until the end of the season, despite interest from Crystal Palace. “He’s looking fine, he’s trained today,” McCarthy said of the 30-year-old, who missed Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Leeds due to the injury. “I don’t think there’s been any adverse reaction to it, so fingers crossed he’ll be fine.” Asked whether there had been any further interest in the former Southampton and Notts County man, McCarthy joked: “Loads, yeah! I’ve no idea, I have not got a Scooby. I come in here or I go to a press conference after a game and somebody will tell me that there’s interest. “I told you right at the start, I spoke to Crystal Palace and I think he was one of a number of goalkeepers and we all do that, we all have a list of them. But I’ve never really seen his name mentioned [with them too often]. So, no, I don’t think so.” If Palace were to firm up their interest, does he have a fee in his thoughts? “I don’t have any figure in mind. I expect him to be here for the rest of the season.” The Eagles had seemed set to sign Getafe goalkeeper Vicente Guaita but that move appears to have broke down leading to renewed links with Bialkowski. Asked if he'd take Bialkowski to one side for a chat if an offer were to be received, McCarthy added: “If they come calling to [owner] Marcus [Evans] and want to make a bid, I’ve no doubt there will have been an agent in his earhole long before it even gets to my desk, telling him that they’re going to make a bid. “Whatever bid that might be, if they want to do it, it’ll have no bearing on me at all. I guess if they do come and it’s a Premier League club, Bart will want to consider that, and why wouldn’t he because every other player would. “I would, as a manager, every other coach would if they could work in the Premier League, probably you guys [in the media] would as well if you got the chance. “It’s just the way the game is. If they come knocking, I’ll deal with it. But I can’t tell you how I’m going to deal with before it happens.” However, Town owner Evans has shown in the past that he is prepared to turn down big bids for players from Premier League clubs if he feels letting that player leave is not in the best interest of the team, most notably the £7 million offer from Leicester for David McGoldrick in August 2015. “He has, he turned bids down for Murph in the past, turned bids down for David McGoldrick in the past,” McCarthy reflected. “People give out to him, and it’s always the same, ‘He doesn’t spend enough’. Well, let me remind people he does, he puts a chunk of money in every year just to keep the club going. “But he has turned bids down, and certainly if he thought people are taking the Mick by waiting until the end of the window thinking, ‘We’ll come in and nick him’, I don’t think he’s the man to be messed with with all of that, to be quite honest.” McCarthy says Evans might well view Bialkowski’s situation as he did McGoldrick’s if an offer is received. “I would think so, we’re four points off the play-offs,” the Blues boss added. “Who knows where we’re going to end up, but I think anybody looking at it thinks that in that position we’ve got a chance. Who knows? “He’s got 18 months of a contract left. Everybody will tell you he’s got a [year’s] option, but we’ve got 18 months. It’s a long old time and it’s whatever Marcus wants to do with it, that’s the upshot of it.”
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